The invention is based on a method for transmitting short messages.
Short message services are already known that serve to send a short message to a subscriber of a telecommunications network without requiring that a telecommunications connection to the subscriber be made beforehand. This is of particular importance in mobile radio systems, since subscribers in such systems are often unreachable. Incoming short messages for the subscriber are stored in memory by a network operator of the telecommunications network and forwarded to the intended subscriber at a later time. The subscriber is informed of the arrival of a short message intended for him so that he can then download the short message from the network operator.
One example of a short message service using the GSM Standard (Global System for Mobile Communications) is the Short Message Service (SMS). In a short message, up to 160 7-bit ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) text characters can be transmitted.
Transmitting longer texts is possible with the aid of chained short messages. Since the GSM Standard provides only for text transmission for the short messages, then if binary data, such as audio data, image data or the like, are to be transmitted, they must be converted into the text format and converted back again into the binary format after being received. Access is possible only to the entire content of a short message, however. As a result, it can happen that data that the addressed subscriber does not want are also transmitted to him with the short message. He does not gain an overview of the contents of the short message until after downloading the entire short message from the network operator.